Another Valentine's Day has come and gone, leaving in its wake the perennial question: Do we really need a special day in order to show our affection? Shouldn't love be a year-round celebration instead of a one-day event created by greeting-card companies?
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Marta Hepler Drahos
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Marta Hepler Drahos
February 21, 2011
Marta Hepler Drahos: Anti-Valentine
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Horse racing not bucolic
Horses are what first drew me to Lexington, Ky., where I fell in love with the thousands of acres of bluegrass, the hundreds of miles of plank fencing, the palatial horse farms with cupola-topped barns in impossibly beautiful settings.
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Marta Hepler Drahos: There’s nothing like a five-dog night
I’m thinking about changing my vanity plate. Instead of “3DOGMOM” it will read “5DOGMOM.” Its companion plate, on my husband’s car, will read “CATX2.”
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Memory box opens floodgates
I open the envelope labeled "personal memories" and a yellowed newspaper clipping falls out.
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Winter wow
As I grow older, though, the winter seems to grow longer. So when winter festivals such as Winter WowFest began to crop up in the region, I embraced the idea. They encourage us to celebrate the inevitable.
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Readers connect
- Monday, December 26, 2011
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MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS: Tugboat finds home
- Monday, November 28, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Seeing Mom everywhere
I’m alone in my mom’s apartment, surrounded by her things: each one a memory, a chapter in her life.
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I’ve come here often in the three weeks since she died, to hold what she once touched, to take in her scent, to cry with abandon or just to sit quietly and remember.
My sister calls me a sensory person, and perhaps I am. All I know is that being here, among her familiar possessions, gives me a kind of comfort I can’t find anywhere else. - Monday, October 3, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Wardrobe malfunction still recalled
- Monday, September 5, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: A stone's throw away
I’m typing at my desk when I feel a familiar twinge in my side. I hope it’s just that my pants are too tight and loosen the waistband. As the afternoon wears on, the twinge becomes a throb. By evening the throb is an all-consuming pain nothing can relieve. Yup, a kidney stone.
Continued ... - Monday, August 8, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Animals test us
Here's the thing about card-carrying animal lovers, the ones St. Francis himself might certify. They have to apply that love equally to all creatures, even the ones that frighten or repel them.
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I've had to remind myself of that several times lately, and not just when using my BugZooka to humanely remove spiders from the house. - Monday, July 11, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Disgusting killer
For me, swans will always be evocative of summer vacations at my grandparents' cottage on Lake Leelanau, where we kept bread for their visits.
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- Monday, June 13, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Humane society in need
When I think of Cherryland Humane Society, it's with pleasant recollections of the hours my family and I spent volunteering at fundraisers.
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But mostly I think of Cody, our beloved shepherd-retriever, who was so unmanageable he was adopted and returned by other people — twice — before we spotted him at the shelter and gave him a last chance.
So when the humane society announced that it might have to close for lack of funds, I was stricken.
What the shelter needs now is a big infusion of cash and FAST. It can be done. And it will be done.
Somewhere over the Rainbow Bridge, Cody is counting on it. - Monday, May 16, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Young life shaken
Many were jubilant when U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in the clandestine raid in Pakistan.
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Me? I worried about how the attack — conducted without the knowledge or assistance of the Pakistani government — would impact our former Pakistani exchange student and her dream of returning to America. - Monday, April 18, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Television candy
You know those comfort foods? The ones like meat loaf, mashed potatoes and mac-and-cheese?
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There are comfort TV shows, too. Mine are "Wheel of Fortune," "Dancing With the Stars" and "The Bachelor" (or "Bachelorette").
Sure, they're brain candy (and my guilty pleasures).
But like any candy — or mashed potatoes or mac-and-cheese — they make me happy. - Monday, March 21, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Stay vigilant
A recent story on Women's History Month and the status of women in America brought lots of memories, many from women my age, who grew up in two different worlds.
Continued ... - Monday, February 21, 2011
- Monday, January 24, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Perfect getaway
When you marry an older man — even one just 12 years older — there's a lot you don't consider. Like the fact that by the time you can retire he'll be more into napping than navigating travel destinations. And that, if it's a second marriage for you both, the likelihood of celebrating your golden wedding anniversary will be about the same as choosing the right gold Mega Ball number. So when I realized our 25th anniversary was coming up in March, I knew it called for something momentous.
Continued ... - Monday, December 27, 2010
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Marta Drahos: Resolutions I won't keep
The countdown to 2011 is just days away, and I'm making my New Year's resolutions. Not the ones I could probably stick to if I applied myself, like swallowing whole the ginormous vitamin tablets certain manufacturers insist on making, or starting my book-club books at least two days before meetings so I don't have to stay up all night the day before.
Continued ... - Monday, November 29, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Be careful purchasing
When a catalog for plus sizes made its way to my mailbox a few years ago I was surprised and more than a little indignant. Sure, I was overweight, but not off the charts — yet.
Continued ... - Monday, November 15, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Re-learning history
We're in Philadelphia's Historic District on our first visit to the nation's birthplace. After a stop for free tickets at the visitors center, we wait in line with a group of German exchange students to tour Independence Hall.
Continued ... - Monday, October 4, 2010
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Drahos: Coconut passes taste test
Maybe it was the slow news day. Maybe it was the potluck smell from the advertising department. Or maybe it was just time for a party.
Continued ... - Monday, September 6, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Animals need more love
Publisher Jennifer Isbell said the magazine will be upbeat and focus on how people can make a difference in their community without overlooking the bad stories and conditions.
Continued ... - Monday, August 9, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Getting another dog
One year, three months, two weeks and six days. That's how long I lasted before caving in to the desire to get another black shepherd.
Continued ... - Monday, July 12, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Endangered ringtone
If a ringtone is an expression of one's personality, I'm a loon. No, not that kind, though my husband might beg to differ. No, I'm simply a nature lover who answers her phone to the haunting call of the aquatic bird.
Continued ... - Monday, May 24, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Caterpillar minefield
When we bought 10 forested acres surrounded by hundreds more, I was thrilled to be living with nature. That was before I made the connection between forest and forest tent caterpillars.
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Kim K. Gets Wet and Wild
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Kathie Lee Gifford's Big Mistake
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